Artur Lundkvist, A Swedish Essayist, Author and Poet, 85

Published: December 13, 1991

STOCKHOLM, Dec. 12—
Artur Lundkvist, a prolific author, essayist and poet and an influential member of the Swedish Academy, which awards the Nobel Prize for Literature, died on Wednesday. He was 85 years old.

He died at a Stockholm hospital after a long illness, said a friend, Roland Olsson.

The first of Mr. Lundkvist's more than 70 books appeared in 1928. Despite having had only six years of formal education, he played an important role in Swedish literature for decades.

"He vitalized and stimulated Swedish literature and cultural debate during 60 years," said Prof. Lars Gyllensten, former secretary of the Swedish Academy.

Among Mr. Lundkvist's works were "Self-Portrait of a Dreamer With Open Eyes" (1966), "Emigration to Paradise" (1979) and "Written Against the Wind" (1983). "Journey in Dream and Imagination," a poetic memoir of a coma during a serious illness in 1981, is to be published in the United States in January by Four Walls Eight Windows.

Mr. Lundkvist, who also wrote thousands of articles, was elected to the academy in 1968 and was instrumental in bringing the works of many Spanish and Latin American writers to his colleagues' attention, often translating the works himself. He also introduced Swedish readers to many writers, notably the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971; the French author Claude Simon, the winner in 1985; the 1990 Nobel laureate, the Mexican poet Octavio Paz, and this year's winner, the South African writer Nadine Gordimer.